Past Present Future

Today’s episode explores the ideas of two late-twentieth-century thinkers who argued that political philosophy needs to be concerned with more than just justice. David talks to Paul Sagar about why Bernard Williams thought we should focus on questions about legitimacy and why Judith Shklar believed we should spend more time worrying about cruelty. Is the fundamental political question about how to achieve the best or is it about how to avoid the worst? And if it’s the second, where should we start?

Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and Paul talk about how personal experience shapes our political and philosophical outlook – a conversation exploring luck, accidents, human frailty and human connection. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening for £5 a month or £50 for the year, sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Paul Sagar’s Substack is called Diary of a Punter – it is highly recommended https://substack.com/@diaryofapunter

Next Time: Where Are We Going? Nuclear Weapons

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In the third part of our series David and Paul Sagar explore what the German writer and sociologist Max Weber can teach us about the pitfalls of political life and political philosophy. Why is doing politics so hard? Why is it so hard to know what to do for the best when all the options are bad ones? How can we still do our best when the only means at our disposal is violence? And where does all this leave the prospects for lasting political change?

Next Time: Learning from Bernard Williams and Judith Shklar

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In the second episode in our short series about how the history of ideas can help with the deepest puzzles of politics, David talks to political theorist Paul Sagar about the eighteenth-century polymath Adam Smith. Normally thought of as the original champion of free-market economics, Smith was far more interested in history, human psychology and the problems inherent in all political systems. What does it mean to live in a commercial society? How should we understand the promise and pitfalls of equality? Where does human liberty come from? And why has the Adam Smith Institute made a mockery of his name?

Next time: Learning from Max Weber

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Today it’s the first episode in a new series asking why contemporary political philosophy struggles to make sense of the deepest problems of politics and exploring how the history of ideas might help. David talks to political theorist Paul Sagar about why looking for justice might be the wrong place to start. Instead, Paul suggests we start with Aristotle, for whom the search for justice was the problem not the solution. So what should we do instead?

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Next time: Learning from Adam Smith
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Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with Helen Thompson about what makes living in a world dominated by the United States so strange. What has changed about American power in the twenty-first century? Is Trump a deviation from the norm or is he simply an extension of it? Why does Greenland matter? And what is at stake as the contest between the US and China ramps up to the next level?

Next Time: What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? 

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